What Makes You Not A Buddhist, by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

by Wayne Ren-Cheng

What Makes You Not A Buddhist, by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

Tibetan Buddhist Master Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse is head of Dzongsar Monastery and College, and is the spiritual director for meditation centers around the word, along with being an author and film director. In his first book he offers a contemporary/traditionalist view of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, in particular the Four Dharma Seals as the core of what makes one a Buddhist.

Khyentse Rinpoche relates the Four Dharma Seals as four truths that if one accepts them as reality, then they are a Buddhist no matter what other beliefs they might hold.

“One is a Buddhist if he or she accepts the following four truths:

All compounded things are impermanent.

All emotions are pain.

All things have no inherent existence.

Nirvana is beyond concepts.”

He goes on to say that if one cannot accept these truths then they are not a Buddhist. Khyentsen Rinpoche offers clear and precise commentaries on each of the Four Dharma Seals. Within those commentaries are insightful journeys into two of Buddhism’s misunderstood philosophies: impermanence and emptiness. In the section Impermanence Works For Us he offers personal relationships as a way to better realize the ideal of impermanence and how its reality affects all that we do, even beyond relationships. His explanation of impermanence is one that all Buddhist should read and learn from. Emptiness is a Buddhist philosophical ideal that confounds many who have been practicing for decades. Khyentsen Rinpoche’s skillful language will certainly unlock the reader’s bodymind so that the ideal of emptiness can be better grasped.

“By conquering Mara and his army, Siddhartha realized the emptiness of inherent existence. He understood that everything we see, hear, feel, imagine, and know to exist is simply emptiness onto which we have imputed or labeled a certain “trueness”.

Of the Four Dharma Seals, numbers 1, 3 and 4 ring true to someone like me who doesn’t study Tibetan Buddhism, but who does respect and admire its commitment to the Noble Path. When writing of the second seal — All emotions are pain. – he says that the Buddha discovered that a root cause of suffering is our emotions. Further he writes that all emotions are in fact suffering because directly or indirectly they arise from a selfish clinging to the concept of a permanent self. This is a way of thinking about emotions that I’ll need to contemplate more.

This short, concise book written in clear, contemporary language is well worth reading. It will make the reader consider their own worldview, Buddhist or not, and whether how they are in that moment can undergo positive transformation.

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THE HEART SUTRA

O, Saripurtra, form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form; form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form, the same is true of feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness.

O, Saripurtra, all dharmas are forms of emptiness, not born, not destroyed; not tainted, not pure, not increasing, not decreasing, and so in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no mental formations, no consciousness; no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no color, no sound, so smell, no taste, no touch, no thought, no realm of sight and so forth until no realm of consciousness, no ignorance, no end to ignorance and so forth until no old age and death, and no end to old age and death, no suffering, no desire, no cessation, no path, no wisdom, no attainment.

And so the Bodhisattva relies on the Prajnaparamita with no hindrance in the mind, no hindrance, therefore no fear, far beyond deluded thoughts, this is Nirvana.

All past, present, and future Buddhas rely on the refinement of wisdom and thus attain the cultivated enlightenment.

Therefore, know that the Prajnaparamita is the interdependent mantra, the interconnected mantra, the mantra of world making the mantra which relieves all suffering.

The Buddha Center in the virtual world of Second Life is a non-denominational Buddhist resource where all are welcome. I, Wayne Ren-Cheng am in my eighth year offering the dharma in this beautiful, peaceful space. The EDIG/BC sangha invites you to join us Fridays at 2pm Second Life Time (SLT is U.S. Western Time Zone) and Mondays at 11am SLT.

Main temple at the Buddha Center in the virtual world of Second Life

Inside the main temple

2011 Sangha in the main temple at the Buddha Center

EDIG sangha in the early days of the Buddha Center.

The Deer Park

Place of Peace Temple a Japanese Temple on the grounds of Furman University, South Carolina